Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony offer the world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Absolute Jest, commissioned by the orchestra, alongside the composer’s Grand Pianola Music, another SFS commission from 30 years earlier, conducted here by the composer.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony join forces with America’s most-performed living composer, John Adams, in a colossal album featuring Adams’s Absolute Jest and Grand Pianola Music. Hear Adams’s inspired and witty take on Beethoven’s spirited scherzos in this first-ever recording of his SFS-commissioned Absolute Jest. Also featured is Grand Pianola Music, with its tongue-in-cheek allusions to Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, written for and premiered by the SFS.

“Exuberance and skill...Adams combines his resources into a heady blend that is by turns translucent and rumblingly grand.” - San Francisco Chronicle (on Grand Pianola Music)

“Great entertainment...it got a hot performance under Tilson Thomas. Subtle amplification is part of the postmodern package and the jumpy St. Lawrence was so energized that you might have thought sound designer Mark Grey had wired the quartet’s seats.” - Los Angeles Times (on the premiere performance of Absolute Jest)